LOST IN SPACE-INVADERS FROM THE 5TH DIMENSION
INVADERS FROM THE FIFTH DIMENSION WRITER-SHIMON WINCELBERG DIR-LEONARD HORN MUSIC-alien music not heard in any other episode NARRATION: Last week, you recall, we left Dr. Smith and Will Robinson, both unaware that their every move was being scrutinized from afar by weird, alien eyes. TEASER-visually fully recapped but missing the first few lines of dialogue but we can see Smith and Will are talking but the narrator is talking and we hear him, not them. Will runs to under one of the tents--this one off to the right side of the Jupiter ramp. He swings a diamond necklace. He sees Smith has fixed the Robot as good as new. We do not hear them talking about any of this but see their mouths moving. Smith asks him what he is swinging. Will explains a diamond necklace he made for Penny, telling Smith the diamonds are useless stuff and that girls always like useless stuff. Will tosses it off to the side of the spaceship. He asks the Robot, "Hey, wanna play chess?" Robot says, "Affirmative." Will and the Robot move off. Smith picks up the necklace, "When I think of the worth of these rocks back on Earth---oh, the pain, the pain." We see an overhead shot of the Jupiter II, the tent, and Smith! All of a sudden, they appear on a murky, cloud like view screen in a very dark spacecraft of some kind. There are four bubble like controls. A clawed, alien hand moves over the devices! (THIS IS WHERE THE CLIFFHANGER ENDED). The cliffhanger music is not here, obviously but new music and sound effects. The alien face, elongated head, turns the screen off the Jupiter II camp and onto the surface of the planet. We hear new music, eerie and very alien sounding. The alien ship hums as the ground passes outside. Outside the Jupiter II ramp later, Judy reads a book in a chair, in front of the radar scanner screen. He turns a page and a bleep makes her call her mom three times. Maureen comes out with a clipboard and pen in her hand. She joins Judy and they both see the blip. Maureen calls Don, who is working in the garden with a hoe or rake. Don tells her just a second but she insists, "No, right now." She tells him about the scanner and he exclaims he just checked it out this morning. As he gets to them, the spot vanishes. Judy tells him there was a strange spot there. Don thinks they are seeing spots before their eyes. Anyway, any kind of blip would have to take off somewhere--it couldn't just vanish off the scope. Don walks away. Maureen says to Judy, "I guess maybe our eyes were playing tricks on us." After Maureen goes inside, Judy says, "I know I saw it. I know I did." The alien ship passes the ground, rocks, and lands. We see it sitting in smoke--we don't actually see it land. It turns a bit. Strange sounds and music, some of the background music from John's spacewalks in THE RELUCTANT STOWAWAY and ISLAND IN THE SKY is mixed with new sounds and music--making the sound track very alien sounding. Smith is hiding behind rocks, watching it. New sounds occur and a shimmering sound. Smith covers his ears from this sound. The eye shape on the strange, small ship glows. Smith turns to run away and starts out but a laser beam comes from the eye and although we don't see it hit him, he is stopped from moving by the beam. An alien face appears in the bubble eye of the alien craft. ACT ONE John Williams music as Smith is seen from a new angle, less close up than the one he seen frozen in. The alien talks a strange language which sounds like English backwards (which makes sense in the context of them being anti human). Smith is able to turn around. In regular English, the alien asks if he is native to this planetoid. He points down in the valley to natives of this planet--called Robinsons. He is from Earth, he tells them. Yes, they say, they know of it--a world in a barbaric state. Smith says, "Exactly." Smith sweats as the alien explains they have a worn out guidance system circuit and need a replacement computer--a portion of a human brain! Smith says, "I'm ignorant" in an effort to con his way out of this. They say something like they will have to reduce his brain to fit the available size and space. He turns to run but is hit by a beam and drawn to the thin looking alien craft and vanishes, appearing inside. Odd camera angles and distorted lenses make Smith appear odd and in an werid place. Curtains of galaxy like material float by and shimmer. He sees a strange device. A floating head (the actor wearing totally black in a totally black area of the set) with no mouth talks to him. Smith tries to fire his laser gun at it when he moves off to consult with his other but the gun vanishes. The alien tells Smith he has treachery and cunning--not doubt noble qualities on Earth. Smith tries to use this to con his way out--saying, "I have a morbid, villainous brain." Smith tries another tactic--that of bringing a smaller Robinson whose brain will not have to be reduced. The alien says, "Very well, go and bring a small Robinson." Smith vanishes to outside. The aliens give him a small metal ball which will guide him to their ship--they are going to move to prevent betrayal. They also make a neck band appear on his neck to insure his termination if he fails--he will die in exquisite agony, they say. It lights up. The ship builds up power and vanishes. Will finds the Robot programmed to act like a scarecrow over the garden. Will goes rock hunting near the lava bed. The Robot reacts to Will's voice now. Smith just misses Will leave. After the band hurts him, Smith asks the Robot if he can remove it. The Robot can with 100,000 volts. The band tightens and Smith stops him from trying. He sends the Robot into the spaceship---telling him he prefers working without an audience--spotting Penny to con. Penny is in the garden and tells Smith that Don told her they have to be careful or the nitrogen in the atmosphere would make the vegetables grow as big as the spaceship (nice link to THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH). Smith tells her he wants to show her something when Don and Judy come up behind him; Don asking what he is up to. Smith asks where Will is. Don tells him to stay away from the boy and if he ever catches him telling Will wild stories again, he'll take action. Don threatens Smith--he's concerned every time he sees Smith with Will. Judy stops Don from getting physical with Smith, "Don, you've no right." Don backs off but Smith tells him he has no hatred in his heart for Don, only pity-sadness and pity. He puts his hand out to Don but Don tells him to just go. Smith turns and makes an aggravated and almost evil face. Will is among the lava rocks that surround the smoking pit. He passes a large boulder which is set into the rock slabs that point upward. Smith is hiding near the rocks, watching. ACT TWO John flies with the parajets on his back and the helmet on (BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF sailing music). He flies past large white rock slab pointing upward and lands amid a lot of smoke. Maureen runs out of the ship and puts her parka into the Chariot which is parked just outside the door ramp. Judy is with her and tells John about the peculiar way Dr. Smith was acting. Maureen relays the strange blip on the scanner she and her daughter saw. Don tells John that Will was sore that Don wouldn't go with him rock collecting. Maureen tells John she is worried about what Smith might do. Robot tells John who asks about Will--that Will has been sidetracked by a find of precious minerals. When John asks Robot why he didn't stop him, Robot says, "I am not programmed to be a babysitter." John asks Don if the extra rocket belt is ready. Don tells him he hasn't had the chance to recharge it yet. John says, "Aw, that's just great." Don says, "Now wait a Professor, I don't mind taking orders but I draw a line at being bossed around like a common field hand." Maureen says, "Don, that'll do. Please, let's find Will." Don apologizes and John says for him to follow as soon as he can. He and Maureen leave in the Chariot with the Robot. Smith's neck hurts, making Will find him. He fakes his hurt as he tells Will lies laced with small truths: "I tried to save them to make up for the shameful, vile, infamous things I've done." NOTE: All the past episodes. Will tells him, "You weren't so bad, honest." Smith asks for forgiveness which Will readily gives. Will wants to help Smith save himself--"You're a doctor." Smith tells Will his flashlight is an ion purifier and if Will shines it in his mouth, it will restore him. Will does this. We can see smoke coming from the lava pit. Smith cons Will some more: his loved ones might be taken by a malevolent alien power which can scoop them up and take them back to their repugnant world. "You should see their spaceship--it's out of this world." Smith stops Will from going to get Don, conning him big time: he wants Will to prove to his parents that he is a man, and can be trusted to choose his own friends. They need info on the alien spacecraft. John calls Will with a head set on and the Chariot mike on. Maureen is sitting on the right side using the binoculars. Smith stops Will from going out to the Chariot by telling him they won't let him go on the grand adventure and he pulls Will back to a rock. NOTE: In almost no other episode do we notice how many freckles Will has on his face. Smith moves Will away as the Chariot leaves, "Someday, you'll all thank me for this." The Chariot glistens in the sun. Now, Maureen is on the left side, driving, and John is in the right seat. Maureen suddenly stops the land car, seeing the alien spaceship just ahead. It vanishes and John doesn't see it. She thought it was a balloon or a spacecraft but tells John she must have been wrong--there was nothing. The two aliens watch the Chariot on their screen. One alien says, "Destroy?" The other says, "Wait, they may be of some use. We can always dispose of them later." Their screen zooms in over the Chariot top. ACT THREE Maureen finds Smith's flashlight; John finds Will's rock bag and pick. Maureen mentions the strange blip again. Robot has insufficient data on where they are or if there was a strange ship. They run back to the Chariot. Robot follows. Smith takes Will down a gorge and covers Will's mouth when they see the Chariot again. He hides Will. John tells Maureen to let him drive for awhile. The chariot passes a rock ridge, away from Smith and Will. Smith tells Will to lead for a bit but then directs him under a small opening under the rock--like a small cave. Smith tells the boy it is not as close as your shadow but not as far as Texas. Will tells him he thinks he should have told his folks where he was going--he has his walkie talkie. He always carries it in case something happens. Smith smiles, lying, probably annoyed at this. He calls Will a clever young man and pats Will's head. Will smiles at this and laughs. Smith tells Will where to go as he is using the round ball the aliens gave him to find out where they are. They see twisted trees and start across a rock moat with a much lower area beneath the higher up trail. We hear the wind sound effect and see smoke beneath them. Will is pulled back by Smith from going any further into the sand-dust pit that is ahead of them, off the track now. Will says, "Ow, you hurt me." Smith tells him he saved his life--he puts on Will's radio beeper--which can be heard for miles--then throws it into the dust bog--it goes down for miles and miles. Smith tells him it is for the best--if he folks found him, they'd be doomed, "Doomed," Smith repeats. Don is on the parajets (BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF Bernard Herrman music). He looks around and flies past a rock in what seems to be some unused footage from the unaired pilot. Will looks around and tries to touch some water in a rocky area. The water is coming out the top of a rock and filtering down. Smith tells him to stop--it is not water. But Will insists he's seen his mom using the same water to cook in. Smith tells him it would take the skin off his hand in a second. When Will says he doesn't believe Smith anymore, he also tells him he thinks Smith took him away to get even or to force his parents to take him back (to Earth). Smith turns away, goes to sit down on a rock, and tells the boy to touch the water. Will tries several times but turns and won't, apologizes, mad at himself for being so mean minded and asks Smith to forgive him!!! John helps Maureen out of the Chariot when they stop at an area and see blast burns--there was something where Maureen thought she saw it. John uses the binoculars. The Robot says, "I detect an alien presence." Maureen asks, "Alien?" The Robot nods his body in a nod move, "ON THIS PLANET, WE ARE THE ALIENS." Maureen says, "Touche." When John asks the Robot about the aliens, the Robot asks him to be more specific. Robot tells them the beings are not human but, "Anti-human." He goes on, "From anti-Earth," and tells John, "You're thoughts are on the right track." John tells Maureen, almost mocking Robot, "Oh, now he's reading our minds." Robot doesn't deny it, "Mind emit waves which can be captured and computed back into words." When John asks if these anti-people have Will, Robot tells him he does not have the data but that it is well within the realm of possibility. They race back into the Chariot. The aliens watch again. One asks, "Destroy now?" The other says, "Not yet." Smith and Will pass a dry trees and rocks in a dry area as well as larger ones, some turned over. Smith leads again. Will finally sees the ball he is using but it vanishes. Smith tells Will the aliens want a human for study purposes and perhaps, the aliens already have one of his sisters captured to return to their own planet with. Smith tells Will he is the agent that will infiltrate the alien control center. The spacecraft quietly appears as we see over the shoulders of the two humans. Will points to it and the ship turns. Will doesn't know the plan as Smith urges him on and moves him toward it. "Never fear, my boy, I will always be close at hand." Will goes to the alien ship, telling him his name and the planet he is from, "I'm Will Robinson from the planet Earth." Will vanishes. Smith smiles in evil fashion. ACT FOUR The Chariot continues the search. Smith's neck ring chokes him but he tells him Will is bright--they will need to use both his and Will's brain. They must Will's capacity. If below they may need to employ both. Smith argues against this, protesting this was not part of the deal. They relent and make the neck ring vanish. Will sees a stand under an open bubble device which circles. He is in darkness with the curtain like materials around him. An alien voice talks to him. He asks how come it is so big in here but so little on the outside (shades of DOCTOR WHO). The alien tells him: "Within this ship we are within a field of the fifth dimension where size has no meaning and is beyond your capacity to comprehend." A head appears in the open area between the curtains and behind Will who slowly realizes it. Will turns and opens his mouth in astonishment but accustoms himself to the idea of the aliens. The alien voice says, "That foolish man that brought you here made you believe you could betray us and employ our vessel to return to your own primitive planet, is that not so?" Will says, "Yes sir." The alien says, "Your moral programming is admirably straight." They will not harm Will. He tells Will they need more than the power of his brain---the aliens have been traveling from before early moments of "your planet's" history---their own mental powers are weary now and they need his youth, freshness, and curiosity. Will responds, "But I'm not curious or fresh and I just look young, honest." When the alien vanishes, Will holds onto his belt. The Chariot moves over a ridge; Maureen driving. She sees the same strange blip Judy and she saw on the scanner this morning--at a bearing of 210 degrees. We see a long shot of the Chariot moving to the ridge. Maureen and John call Will in an area of echoes as they run about it. Smith comes to them and tells them "They got Will! These creatures--they captured us both, they mumbled some rubbish about using a human brain for a computer--they kept Will. We've got to do something--they may take off at any minute!" Smith goes to the Robot (and as he does we hear a mechanical sound--which cannot be the Robot coming out since he is in the Chariot but may be him turning or something). When Smith tells Robot to compute, he mentions his brain checked out as too old, John grabs Smith and tosses him to the Chariot side, yelling at him why didn't he offer them the robot's brain. Smith yells he did. John goes to punch him but Maureen blocks his arm, "JOHN!!!" Smith tells him Will is probably plugged into their computers now--plotting the angle and velocity of departure. John yells at him to show them the way and to get into the Chariot. Will is on the pedestal under the open bubble device. The alien seems to worry about discomfort but Will tells him he is fine. He also tells Will they can, if he wishes it, erase his memory of his parents but Will tells them he wants to remember them. He also wants to go back to them now. The alien says, "Regrettably, for a time, we will need you more than they." We see the Chariot and then Don landing with the parajets--new footage and more 12 Mile music. The chariot comes and Don sees it, taking off his helmet and parajets. We see a good rare shot of the entire front of the Chariot. Maureen spots Don and leads the way out. They go to him. Don tells them Judy and Penny are fine--he told them to stay buttoned up (?) in the spaceship. They see the alien spaceship. Smith tells them, "Now, that doesn't look so monstrous does it?" Don says, "Neither do you." The Robot comes to them, arms out, "The craft is surrounded by a forcefield in the fifth dimension which is mathematically immm-mpossible." NOTE: The Robot still talks, on occasion, with a slight electronic lag--such as MMMMM or BLEBLEBLE. John says, "I guess it take a human being to accept the impossible." Maureen yells and moves to the Robot, "Stop them! Can't you stop them?" John drags her back and orders the robot to try to stop them and has to order him to try--twice. Robot moves out but his own electronic fire--short bolts--which bounce off the alien device and one of the stray bolts hits him and disables him. Smith tells him it's just like throwing good money after bad, "If you don't mind the comparison." John says, "I do mind." He moves the gun up over the rock they are hiding behind but a blast fires from the alien ship and blows up in front of them. Will seeing this on the alien scanner, tells them not to do anything--he will promise to cooperate. He talks to them via the screen and tells them he is okay and it will be okay--ask Dr. Smith--he fixed everything up for him. Under the accusing stares of the others, Smith says, "I can explain everything...later." Will cannot compute the alien trajectory--he's trying, he claims but he can't. There are emotional blockages which he cannot clear. The other (?) alien tells him to forget his family completely but he can't. Bill Mumy does some excellent acting here---he has a tear on his cheek which wants to wipe away and moves to but doesn't since he is embarrassed to. His face and expression are well done and moving without being too sentimentally silly. The computer phase outs burn out (?) and the computer vector cycles short circuit and spark too. The alien tells him when he has helped them return to their own planet they will return him to this miserable place. Will tells them, "I love them and I don't want to leave them at all...." The alien tells him, "You will see them again but you must concentrate." Will stammers, "I'm tryin' but I just keep thinking of...." He cries and tears now streak down both cheeks. The alien says: "Love, what is it? Can you eat it? What does it do? Except profault (?) the clarity of the brain." On the screen we and they see Maureen say, "Will!" The alien goes on, "Extraordinary--it seems to be a form of madness common to all of them." Will: I can't help feeling the way that I do. Alien: What primitive, barbaric creatures you are. On your own planet yo slaughter each other unceasingly, all in the name of love. Will: At least we keep trying to get better--we don't go around turning people into machines. The taller alien returns and tells the other to let him go. The other protests that without him, the power build up when fully powered up will destroy them. The other tells him Will is useless, let him go. Will smiles--and we see that one tooth on the right side is smaller than the others--baby tooth? Outside the ship hum increases. The ship blows up into fire and smoke, making Maureen and John, who run out from behind the rock, to fall down. At the same time, Will appears outside on the ground, on his stomach (while this "appearing" effect is adequate and better than when compared to most other series of similar special effects--it is below par for a LOST IN SPACE effect--we can see movement of all the other characters in the shot when Will appears). TAG AND CLIFFHANGER: John and Maureen go to Will. Maureen hugs him, "Oh my Will, you're alright." John picks him off his feet and twirls him around. Will says, "Hey Dr. Smith, our plan worked out okay." Smith says, "Oh yes indeed my boy, just leave it to dear old Dr. Smith." He smiles but frowns into a fearful gaze from John and Maureen's stares. He moves off and away. Maureen asks what happened. Will says, "Welp, there were these guys and they didn't have any bodies or mouths." Maureen smiles, "No bodies?!" Will goes on, "No, and they tried to take my brain." Maureen asks, "Your brain?!" Will says, "Yeah." John asks, "Now what would they want with your brain?" Will says, "I dunno." They move off and it appears that Don has fixed the Robot. John writes in his log book while in his cabin on the lower deck: "All trace of the alien spaceship disappeared in the explosion and with it any hopes we might have learned about this strange race from beyond the stars. Our main concern now is that our water conversion unit be protected from the extremes of heat we know are to come." He stops. Outside, Judy is asked by Don if she is tired. She says, "Hot---there's not a breath of air." Don tells her that if they can insulate the water conversion unit from the current drought they will have water safe from evaporation. Don suddenly thinks he hears something. Judy doesn't. They listen. Don gulps. Above them (?) on a hill or mountain (?) we see rocks slowly start to slide down. Lower deck of the Jupiter II: Penny and Will set the table as cups and plates slide out of the wall unit on a conveyor belt in the middle of the table. Maureen asks Will to get Judy and Don for lunch is about to begin. On his way, Will looks at the Robot and smiles. Suddenly the deck tilts as a shock wave is heard. Penny falls and Maureen helps her up. Penny asks, "Is there gonna be a storm?" A full fledged quake hits. John and Smith, in the lab, shake. Maureen rushes to the ladder--Judy is outside with Don. John follows her up the ladder. Big rocks fall down the mountain in a cascade (stock footage which either doesn't match up or is in a different part of the mountain than anywhere near Don and Judy). Smaller rocks rain down on Don and Judy. Judy urges Don to hurry; Don urges Judy to go, "Get to the ship!" He tells her again, "Go now!" and she says, "No!" but finally, she does run with Don almost finished making the connection on the unit hose. Don runs, looking up at a giant flat edged boulder which has been threatening to rock off a smaller cliffside top which is closer to him and the area. The boulder falls off the ridge at Don! TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK--SAME TIME--SAME CHANNEL REVIEW: For whatever reason, LOST IN SPACE and Irwin Allen didn't hold onto Shimon Wincelberg. They should have--he continued the continuity shown throughout the early episodes and also makes the alien idea very unique by making them from an "anti Earth" but this is not explored beyond that on the aired episode. Even so, this is a very good and atmospheric episode with Smith never really being as cunning and evil minded and selfish as here--giving Will over to the aliens has to be one of the worst, if not the worst, short of trying to murder the others with the Robot. That in mind, perhaps this one should have been placed before WELCOME STRANGER since Smith was a bit less evil in that one. And maybe before MY FRIEND MR. NOBODY since he redeems himself at the finale of that one. Shimon also seemed to base his aliens on the supremely underdeveloped alien pair in the very end of the unaired pilot--but in look and design they are very different as well as in conception. Shimon also kept in mind the soil is dangerous motif even if only in a throwaway line by Penny about the nitrogen affecting the plants (how would nitrogen and its contents affect the plants?) if they are not careful (how do the Robinsons manage to plant in the ground again and avoid the mutation that occurred in THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH?--they have been using the ground since WELCOME STRANGER). Also--we can note water in this episode as well as in MY FRIEND MR. NOBODY---there seem to be streams and lakes, even water they are using for cooking and drinking. Why is water then such a problem in the future? I suppose the sun could dry up the water beds and streams and such but why didn't the Robinsons prepare better for the drought that they knew might come? The alien bubble touch controls were in THE DERELICT. John and Maureen's search in the Chariot and the scene where they are calling for Will just before finding Smith are used again, later in THE RAFT. In the episode, some viewers report seeing Bob May's Bermuda Shorts between the Robot's parts. This is not very obvious and needs close scrutiny to be seen--if at all. Some of this episode's alien music sounds are used in THE TIME TUNNEL-THE GHOST OF NERO during the tunnel's haunting of the ghost. NOTE: Another SPACE: 1999 episode, RING AROUND THE MOON, features aliens from Triton, a planet very far off, almost in another dimension--aliens without bodies but eye-like entities--which spy on the Alphans through a cloudy, misty screen--in a strange unreal ship--they use an Alphan crewman to be a link to the computer of Alpha and their own--and the crewman dies--not being able to do this. So the aliens use Helena Russell. This is not meant to denigrate SPACE: 1999, which I enjoy almost as much as LOST IN SPACE, sometimes even more but the comparison between two great series cannot be overlooked.